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Leeds Airlines Flight 549
'Leeds Airlines Flight 549 '''was a passenger flight operated by Leeds Airlines. At 9am local time on 4 January 2013, the Airbus A320 flying the route between Frankfurt Airport and Leeds International Airport overshot the end of the runway at LIA, killing 38 passengers plus the co-pilot. It was the second accident of this type in under a year at LIA, following Leeds Airlines Freight Flight 185; this was later found to be sheer coincidence, with no safety issues arising with the airport itself. It was also the second fatal accident in Leeds in three days, following the 2 January crash of Homingtons Airtours Flight 1 at Leeds Regional Airport. Aircraft The aircraft involved was an Airbus A320-211, registered D-AIPN, powered by two International Aero V2527E-A5 turbofan engines. According to ''Flight International, the aircraft was built in February 1999 and first entered service with Leeds Airlines in June 2000. Delivered to the carrier on 2 August 2000, the airliner was initially based at Heathrow Airport in London for UK-based services, before moving to become based at LIA in 2003. The aircraft had logged 16,299 cycles (flights) totalling 25,241 flight hours prior to the crash. Total time on the engines were 19,182 on the left (#1) and 25,241 on the right (#2); the #1 engine had been replaced at some point due to an unrecoverable hydraulics fault in the old #1 engine. The last A Check, a check of aircraft taken every 550 flight hours, was passed on 30 November 2012. The last C Check, an annual comprehensive inspection, was passed on 13 October 2012. Flight history Flight 549 was on a routine passenger flight between Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, and Leeds International Airport. The aircraft was given permission to perform a routine landing at LIA, in heavy rain, at 0904 local time, following a routine flight. Crash The flight was informed of severe wind shear on landing, including a crosswind, so the aircraft was set up for a crosswind landing. The pilots attempted to land the aircraft banked slightly to the right to compensate for the crosswind - this is known as a crosswind landing. Additionally, they landed at a speed 20 knots higher than usual, due to the circumstances. However, at the last second and without warning, the direction changed to a strong tailwind. The crew were caught completely unaware, and as such continued with the crosswind landing. With no crosswind and a strong tailwind, the aircraft was pushed along at speed so that it ended up touching down more than half way along the runway. Also, due to the lack of crosswind to compensate the crosswind landing, the right-hand bank was more severe than it otherwise would be - right-hand landing gear touched down first, followed by the left-hand landing gear and nose landing gear a full nine seconds later. The late touchdown of these meant that the brakes and reverse thrusters were not deployed until much later than usual, as they come on automatically when it is detected that all of the oleo strut shock absorbers have touched down. This late brake application was made worse by the fact that the plane was actually aquaplaning along the runway, wet with rainfall, for several hundred yards. As a result, the aircraft was more than three-quarters of the way down the runway when it finally began to slow down. The pilot soon realised that the plane was going too fast to land. The plane by this point also had not enough room to take off again, although it was probably going fast enough to take off if runway distance was available. The pilot therefore applied reverse thrust to full power, and also applied first the full service brake and then the emergency brake. However, he noticed that the plane was going off of the end of the runway; he also noticed that beyond the end of the runway were several houses. The pilot made the honourable move of turning sharply left onto the grass at the side of the runway to avoid crashing into the houses. The aircraft departed the runway at 72 knots, and slowed down very little on the gripless wet grass. After bouncing along the grass to the left of the runway for 90 yards, the plane hit an earthen embankment, flipped into the air, and landed with some force on the other side of the embankment, up against the airport's perimeter fence. The plane stayed relatively intact despite the force of the landing, and also landed upright. However, immediately after the plane came to a standstill, a fire broke out in the left wing. The fire was caused by the a fuel tank in the left wing being struck by an ILS aerial which was perched on the embankment. The aerial breached the fuel tank, which leaked out fuel all over the place and caused the fire to break out. The fire then spread along the wing and entered the passenger cabin, practically completely gutting it and killing 38 passengers in the process. The co-pilot was also killed in the initial collision with the earthen embankment, raising the death toll to 39. The other 31 passengers and crew aboard all suffered some form of injury, ranging from back injuries to broken bones, to smoke inhalation to burns. Of these, 20 were minor injuries not bad enough to require hospital treatment; the remaining 11 people suffered major and some possibly life-threatening injuries, and had to be taken to hospital. The crash was the 21st hull loss accident involving the Airbus A320 since the type was first produced in 1988. All but one of these 21 hull loss accidents have involved an Airbus A320-200. It was the deadliest accident involving an Airbus A320 since the crash of TAM Airlines Flight 3054 killed 199 people in July 2007. Aftermath Fire engines were quick to reach the scene, within two minutes, followed by the first ambulance responders, within three. After the fire brigade had extinguished the burning aircraft, paramedics worked to pull people out of the wreckage. 31 people had already escaped the wreckage before the arrival of any emergency services. All of the 39 people dragged out of the wreckage by paramedics after the fire was extinguished were already dead, and nothing could have been done to save them. As a result of the crash, LIA closed at 0906. Some flights were diverted to Leeds Regional Airport if space allowed, but most were cancelled. Limited portions of LIA re-opened later that day at 2328, though large parts of the airport will remain closed until at least 6 January. Following the crash, Leeds Airlines changed the flight number of the weekly Frankfurt to Leeds service from 549 to 555. Investigation and cause An investigation was launched by the Leeds Air Travel Safety Executive (LATSE) the same day as the crash. The cause was found to be pilot error leading to an incorrect plane setup due to a sudden shift in weather conditions, coupled with aquaplaning due to heavy rain, causing the plane to overshoot the runway, crash into an obstacle, and catch fire. The crash was described as "possibly avoidable and possibly not", depending on the exact circumstances inside the cockpit and on the ground at the time, which may never be known fully.